Grant of £31,141 over 2 years to the Start Right Project to provide specialist volunteer help for families with exceptionally complex needs.

What does project aim to achieve? Home-Start Lambeth offers support and practical help to families with children under five. They recruit, train and supervise volunteers (normally parents themselves) to visit families at home to offer informal, friendly and confidential help. The Start Right project helps with exceptionally complex needs including domestic violence and learning difficulties. Our grant is for the Project Co-ordinator’s salary.

A spin-off of the project is that the volunteers themselves benefit economically. Many go on to further training and 30% move into paid employment as a result of the work experience gained. Over ¾ of the volunteers are recruited from socio-economic groups similar to the families they help. This is a key aim of Home-Start as mentoring families works best where the volunteer has some similarity of experience.

As well as assisting with parents’ practical needs and day-to-day parenting, we also wanted to help with the pre-school educational development of the children. A Speech and Language Therapist has been employed to provide assessment and support in addition to the volunteers.

The Walcot & Hayle's Trustee is a limited company (6133849) registered in England and is the sole trustee of The Walcot Educational Foundation (312800), The Hayle's Charity (312800-1), The Walcot Non Educational Charity (312800-2) and the Cynthia Mosley Memorial Fund (312800-3)